Turkey’s Erdogan Expresses Need To “Rescue” Crimea, Nagorno-Karabkh

The 13th Islamic Summit entitled “Unity And Solidarity For Justice And Peace,” set up by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (IOC) took place on April 10-15 in Istanbul, Turkey and yielded some revealing but certainly not unsuspected news. At the summit, chaired by Turkish President Recep Erdogan, more signs emerged of a Turkish/GCC attempt to not only continue to destabilize Syria but an attempt to extend the destabilization into Eurasia, up to the Russian border, and even inside Russian territory itself.

During the course of the summit, then-Turkish Prime Minister Davitoglu addressed the issues of the “Occupied Islamic Territories,” i.e. Palestine, Nagorno-Karabkh, and Crimea and expressed concerns about the development of those situations. He stated that these areas needed to be rescued via cultural, religious, and “other” means although he was not specific as to what these “other” means might be. He also referred to the Crimean issue as one of the main issues of the summit.

Although the Turkish version of the summit’s communique was not ultimately not accepted by the group, the communique that was produced condemned “Armenian aggression” in Nagorno-Karabkh and expressed “interest” in the Crimean situation.

It should also be noted that Mustafa Dzhemilev, former chairman of the Mejlis Of the Crimean Tatar People, was presented by the summit as the only legitimate representative of the Crimean people. Dzhemilev held a joint meeting with the Turkish and Azeri presidents during the course of the summit.

In addition, King Salmaan of Saudi Arabia was in attendance and was greeted at the airport by Recep Erdogan who later presented the King with an award at an official ceremony.

News organization SouthFront has suggested that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are using Turkey to expand their influence in both Eurasia and, eventually, the EU. SouthFront argues that Turkey has accepted this scheme and is currently moving forward in terms of implementation.

Regardless, Turkey’s attempt to stir up the crisis in Ukraine by using Crimea and its Tatar population is nothing new. Remember, on August 1-2, a meeting was convened at the Hotel Billkent in Ankara, Turkey labeled the Second World Congress of the Tatars. This meeting brought together over 200 Tatar NGOs and associations from all over the world. The event was also attended by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus. Both officials participated in the event as well.

Nearly 200 Crimean Tatar nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups gathered in Ankara as part of the Second World Crimean Tatar Congress to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the situation of their brethren in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in February of last year.

The meeting took place on Saturday at Ankara Bilkent Hotel and Congress Center and focused on the dire conditions under which Crimean Tatars have to live in the face of encroaching Russian pressure on their cultural life. The gathering offered an opportunity for lengthy discussions about how to resolve the prolonged conflict in Ukraine and to maintain Tatars’ threatened community rights under the new administration in Crimea.

But, while Russia and the annexation of Crimea were the focus of the meeting, a foolish and potentially dangerous decision was made between Ukraine and Turkey.

At the meeting, it was announced by Mustafa Abdulcemil Cemiloglu, acting leader of the Crimean Tatars as decreed by Ukrainian President Poroshenko, announced the creation of a “Muslim Brigade” to oppose “Crimean separatism,” as well as “human trafficking” and the “transportation of goods near conflict zones.” In other words, the meeting spawned the creation of a terrorist brigade to combat Russian involvement in Crimea and pro-Russian sentiment and activism in the area.

It should be noted that Cemiloglu was a notorious CIA asset and collaborator throughout the years of the Reagan Administration. He was also the former leader of the Crimea Tatar Majlis.

After the announcement was made by Cemiloglu, he was received by Turkish Recep Erdogan, who assured him of Turkey’s full support for the Tatars against Russia. Turkey has been vocal about the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine and has, like the rest of NATO, taken a strong anti-Russian stance on the issue of Ukraine.

The “Muslim Brigade” apparently will be based at Herson, near the Crimean border and was designed to include volunteers and jihadists from a number of other locations in the region – “Tatarstan,” Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, and Georgia.

Turkey was not to be left out of the mix, however, since it was committed to donate a number of the jihadists currently operating within its own borders for the purposes of destroying the government of Syria to the new Muslim Brigade in Ukraine.

Indeed, Turkey has already acted on its jihadist-based intervention in Ukraine since, in December 2013, Turkish intelligence sent a number of Tatar jihadists to Ukraine so they would be able to assist the Western color revolution in Kiev where the terrorists acted as “security” for pro-European and anti-Russian protests in the Maidan, often suspected of being the culprits behind a number of violent acts resulting in the violent crackdown by police.

They are members of the “Azatlyk’’ (freedom) movement led by young Naïl Nabiullin, and campaign for a Greater Turkey. They are backed by Trotskyist parties such as the Russian Left Front of Sergei Udaltsov, as well as the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They’ve just come back from Syria, through Turkey, where they had gone to practice jihad against the Syrian government. They seem to be behind the provocations that have led the Riot Police to commit excesses.

With this in mind, it is very concerning that Turkey and Ukraine have taken steps towards greater provocations against Russia – this time using jihadist terrorists on and inside Russian borders. Such moves clearly increase the likelihood that Russia will be forced to engage NATO and its proxies in a direct military fashion at some point.

After all, color revolutions, if caught early enough, can be eliminated by removing the NGOs and Foundations responsible for organizing the “golden youth” but repeated acts of suicidal terrorism must be cut off at the source or it will continue to take place indefinitely. If Russia finds itself surrounded by US/NATO military bases and missile systems while, at the same time, being faced with economic warfare and sanctions, it may view its current position of non-intervention as untenable when faced with cross-border terrorist attacks openly supported by NATO countries.

Indeed, it appears that Vladmir Putin is already well aware of the attempts by NATO and Turkey in particular to use terrorism against Russia inside the Russian borders. According to a report by Press TV, during a visit to the Crimea, Putin stated

It’s obvious that a risk remains from outside forces to destabilize the situation on the [Crimean] peninsula in one way or another. In certain capitals they talk openly about … the need to carry out subversive activities. Personnel are being recruited and trained to carry out subversion, acts of sabotage to conduct radical propaganda.

Turkey’s move also bolsters the assertions made by others such as Webster Tarpley that the Turkish bombing of ISIS – on the rare instances where ISIS forces are actually targeted – is nothing more than an attempt to push some ISIS forces east towards Iran and, eventually, Russia.

Tensions between the United States, NATO and Russia over Syria, Iran, Ukraine, and the current sanctions can only be increased by Turkey’s support of terrorism aimed at Russia. Erdogan’s fantasies of becoming the next Ottoman emperor have apparently become so great that he believes challenging Russia is a legitimate means to this end. It is time for both Erdogan and the rest of the Western world to realize the folly of these attempts and to immediately back off of further provocation.